With Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick L. Ireland at his side, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo announced that he will file legislation today to implement global reforms to management of the court system and the Probation Department.

The bill calls for dividing the administrative and judicial responsibilities now held by the chief justice for administration and management into two separate positions.

A civilian court administrator would be hired to take over the court’s general management, such as reviewing and approving the hiring of “non-judicial workers,” managing the court’s budget, and negotiating contracts and leases.

Court policy and planning, judicial assignments and discipline, and other judicial functions would remain under the purview of the newly titled “chief justice of the Trial Court.”

The bill is an historic, cooperative effort between the legislative and judicial branches that have long tussled over control of the court system.
“For too long, tension has prevented effective changes from taking place,” DeLeo said. “That ends today.”

DeLeo said the bill is a culmination of months of close collaboration with Ireland and other members of the SJC, including former Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall, as well as members of a task force headed by L. Scott Harshbarger and Father Donald Monan, who issued a report calling for court reform back in 2003.

Martin W. Healy, chief legal counsel for the Massachusetts Bar Association, said the bill represents “substantive reform” and proposes an unprecedented level of transparency for both the courts and state government as a whole.

Healy called the cooperation between the courts and lawmakers in crafting the bill a far cry from the hard feelings that existed between the two branches when court reform was last debated during the tenure of Chief Justice Paul Liacos in the early 1990s.

The legislation unveiled today also calls for the hiring of civilian managers to serve as deputy court administrators for each of the seven court departments.

The chief justices of each department will remain in their roles, but focus solely on judicial responsibilities.

Other changes in the bill include removing the probation commissioner’s sole power to hire employees and sharing that authority with the court administrator, and establishing an advisory board made up of experts in criminal justice, public policy, management and human resources — much like the court-appointed Harshbarger task force — to identify additional reforms for the Probation Department.

The bill also includes a provision that will require any recommendations made on behalf of job candidates across state government to be withheld from hiring authorities until they are finalists for a position. Once that person is hired, those recommendations then become public records. Candidates must also disclose the names of any family members who are state employees.

“This really does change business as usual up on the Hill,” Healy said.

Rep. Eugene L. O’Flaherty, who chairs the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, said he intends to schedule a public hearing on the bill within the next two weeks.

Provided the measure passes the House, DeLeo said he has been told by Senate President Therese Murray that the Senate hopes to take up the matter by mid-May.